Professor of anthropology and African studies, Colby University

Catherine Besteman is a professor of anthropology and African studies at Colby University. Her teaching interests focus on the roots of violent conflict and the forces that sustain inequality and produce poverty in Africa. She is the author of Unraveling Somalia: Race, Violence and the Legacy of Slavery, The Struggle for Land in Southern Somalia: The War Behind the War, and Violence: A Reader.

Dr. Celia de Anca is currently the Director of the Centre for Diversity in Global Management at IE Business School. She was previously the Director of Corporate Programmes at the Euro-Arab Management School (EAMS), Granada. She is also regular researcher at the Centre for International Mediterranean Studies (TEIM).

Former Director for European Affairs, U.S. National Security Council

Dr. Charles Kupchan is former Director for European Affairs on the U.S. National Security Council. He is currently Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University, and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Professor Charles Kurzman is a specialist on Islamic movements at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. He has carried out research in Iran, Turkey, Europe, the United States, and Mexico, and is currently working on studying the recruitment difficulties of Islamist revolutionaries. (excerpts)